No school tomorrow!

Tomorrow is "Staff Development Day" at school, so the kids have the day off. I will be babysitting Kasey and Ethan tomorrow, since their Mom will be at school and doesn't have daycare. The good thing about that is that I won't have to listen to Emma or Gage saying they are bored and can we play with a friend. Hopefully the day will not be too chaotic. Gage won't be home until around noon or later tomorrow, so Ethan may be bored without him to play with.

Today Emma had a birthday party to go to at the park. She had a good time. She must have spent most of her time on the monkey bars because she had just tore open the blister that had formed on her hand when I got there to pick her up. She loves going across those monkey bars. That was one of my favorite things to do at the park when I was growing up too! While Emma was at the party I ran a few errands and then spent the remainder of my time at the zoo. The park Emma was at was right next to the zoo, so I thought it would be nice to walk around the zoo and see the animals that "I" wanted to see for a change! :-) I love the new Big Cat exhibit. The 3 tigers they are are really fun to watch. They are playful just like my cats, only in a much larger size! Next Saturday (Oct. 4...........Gage's birthday) they will be letting the leopards out into their new home from 1-4pm. I would really like to see how they react to their new surroundings, so I'll have to talk Gage into going to the zoo on his birthday!

We are having his birthday party on Friday after school. He handed out invitations at school last week. I apparently had a brain fart when I decided Friday from 3:05-5p would be a good day for the party because the kids have swimming lessons from 4:35-5:05. UGH! I'm not sure what I can do other than have Gage miss swimming lessons. I hate to do that though because he missed this past Friday so he could go hunting with Scott. I don't think they can pass into the next level if they miss 2 or more classes. The only other option would be to have Gage skip out on the last 1/2 hour of his party and I seriously doubt he's going to want to do that! What a dork I am! While I was running errands this afternoon when Emma was partying, I went to Staples and found the Mom's Planning calendar that Kara has (I hope you don't mind me copying you Kara!). It is a really neat little calendar that I can carry with me, so hopefully I can avoid making stupid mistakes like planning a birthday party when we are supposed to be at swimming lessons! I need to get myself organized!

Gage's birthday theme is Pirates and I'm going to make him a pirate ship cake for his party. My friend, Jodie, who took the cake decorating class with me a few years ago made this cake for her son's party a couple of years ago, so thought I would give it a try. I need to search the internet for the directions she had on how to do it. Hopefully I'll be able to find them. However, I did take a picture of the cake when Gage was at the party, so if I can't find it on the internet, I do at least have a guide to go by. I'm hoping this will be much easier than my typical shaped cakes. I hate tinting all of that frosting for all of the different colors that they require. I shouldn't have to do much (or any) of that at all. I'll be sure to take pictures to post on my blog on Friday!

I've got lots to do this week to get ready for Gage's party!!